Conveyer.



J. H. LONG.v

UmmmI4 APLIGATION FILED FBB.3, 1908.

Patented Nov. 10, 1908i 8 SHEETS--SHEET 1.

Ina/enf?? Jsiah ong,-

J. H. LONG. ONVEYER. APPLICATION FILED FBBza, 190e.

903,591 Patented Nov. 10, 1908,

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

.TOSIAII H. LGNG, OF MELROSE, MASSACHUSETTS.

CONVEYER.

Application filed February 3, 1908.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JosrAi-I H. LONG, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Melrose, in the county of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Conveyers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of this invention is the construction of expeditious means for conveying easily-injured supercially elongated articles from one point to another; and particularly for carrying stereotypes and the like from one part of a building to another, as from the top ioor where such plates may be formed, to the basement where are located the presses upon which the same are to be used, and thence back up again after their work is done.

Referring to the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a curved stereotype plate for which this invention is particularly designed. Fig. 2 is a side sectional elevation of the upper portion of this conveyer, showing the same in connection with the means for automatically delivering the stereotypes to the conveyer, or of receiving the same therefrom. Fig. 3 is a top view of such a stereotype supported in the device by means of which the plates are delivered to the conveyer in the basement and by it carried upward. Fig. 4: is a side sectional elevation of said device, and also a side elevation of the receiving means to which the stereotypes are delivered when they are brought'down from the upper part of the building. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the plate-holders carried by the conveyer-chain. Fig. 6 is a side elevation of a portion of the automaticdelivering l and receiving means.

As shownin Fig. 1, the stereotype plate 1 for which this invention is especially arranged is substantially a hollow semi-cylinder carrying the printing surface on its periphery. It is consequently very important that such surface shall not be scratched, hit or otherwise injured during transportation from the upper floor where such plates are usually made, to the basement where they are to be used in printing.

In large newspaper oliices, it is found impossible to so transport the plates with suficient rapidity by means of elevators, without accumulating the plates in such quanti- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 10, 1908.

Serial No. 413,980.

tiesin the stereotype room as to cause them to occupy much valuable space. Moreover, the labor-expense consequent upon this oldtirne method is a costly item, and in additionI adds greatly to the danger of injury to the plates.

By usino' an endless conveyer provided with a sufficient number of plate-holders, and properly speeding the conveyer, the plates can be removed from the stereotype room as rapidly as they can be produced. The form of conveyer I employ is preferably an endless chain of any well known type, having fixed thereto pairs of hooks or forks 2 having behind them the concave guard 3 preferably composed of wood, or of metal faced with some protecting material as leather or fabric. Vhen the conveyer chain 1 is vertical and said forks parallel therewith and open upward, as 2 in Fig. 1, a stereotype plate is supported thereby with its printing surface neXt the guard 3, without danger of dislodgment or injury.

To automatically deliver the stereotype plates 1 to these forks or holders, 2, 3, I pass the chain 4 over the pulleys 6, 7 and S in such a manner as to give to a section of said chain a horizontal position, as in Fig. 1. Hence, the section of chain @La being now the descending one, the section 4b will have a horizontal motion away from the pulleys 3, and the forks or holders on this latter section will be carried with their open ends rearward. Beneath said chain-section 1b is located a second, or delivery conveyer 10 arranged to run with higher speed than the said section and in the same direction. Consequently, a stereotype plate being laid upon the delivery conveyer end on, as shown in Fig. 1, immediately after a holder has come over the pulleys 8, before said holder' has reached the pulleys 6 and begun its downward movement, said plate will have been carried into said holder by the delivery conveyer 10. Inasmuch as such plates simply rest upon said delivery conveyer, or apron, 10, the latter leaves such plates in the grip of the holders, and never ceases its rapid thereby. On the other hand, there is danger latter get beyond the reach of the forks being so far in advance of the plate as to round the pulleys 6 before such plate can be brought into engagement therewith. Consequently it is essential that a starting means be provided for the plates, so that they will not begin to be moved by the apron 10 untilthe proper moment to be correctly carried into the forks. To this end, I provide the swinging gate 11 suitably supported on trunnions 12, and held in the path of a plate 1 by a latch 13, pivotally supported at 14. To trip this latch and re- .leasethe plates at the proper moment, the

tail 15' of said latch is adapted to be struck by the cross bar 16 carried by the forks 2, as each pair of forks round the pulleys 8. The gate 11 being thus released the plate is permitted to travel with the apron 10, and overtakes and enters the forks before the of the apron. By providing the face of the gate 11 with a sheet of leather 17 or other like material,

and having the same project below the edge' of said gate, the latteris prevented from marring the printing surface of the plates, either by the direct contact therewith, or by the dragging of the gate along the moving printing surface.

The stereotype plates are held true upon the apron 10 by means of the guides 19 rising from the latter, as shown in Fig. 1. In' use, the apron 10 is designed to be located to receive the stereotype plates as rapidly as delivered down the incline 2O from the last machine used in their formation, so that absolutely no manual handling thereof is required at this end of the conveyer.

For receiving the plates at the lower end of the conveyer, I prefer to locate an in` c'line'd series of small rolls 21 so positioned that, when the forks 2 begin their upward course after rounding the pulleys 22 retaining in position the conveyer-belts or chains 4 at such point, the plates carried by such forks slide out therefrom and have theirv edges engage such rolls and slide down along the same to the springs 23, and thence to the table 24. From this table they are immediately removed to the presses by the men in attendance thereat. The purpose of the spring or springs 23 is lof course to lessen the shock incident to the landing of the plates upon the table 24.

Inasmuch as it is necessary to place 'the plates upon the presses by hand, and such presses are distributed at various places about the press-room', it is muchmore practical to" have the plates descend to a receiving table and from there distributed' by hand, than it is to attempt to provide any automatic distributing device.

After an edition of the publication has been struck off, the stereotype plates are returned to the stereotyping room to be melted up and made into fresh plates. In doing vthe f @as shown in frame.

y such this, the conveyer 4 has its direction of motion reversed; the section 4a which formerly received a continuously descending movement, is now made to ascend. To deliver the plates to the ascending forks, the

swinging frame 26 is provided, the lower part of the side bars of which is adapted to support a plate, and, by the inward swing of rame, to introduce the plate into the path of the rising forks and permit it to be removed therefrom by such forks and car-V ried on upward.

The plate-supporting means consist of the l' twoV inwardly inclined strips 27 fixed to the i lower outwardly bent part 28 of the side bars,

into which a plate 1 is adapted to dovetail, Fig. 3, the lower end of the upon the cross-bar 29 of the By having the lower part of the framev bent as illustrated in Fig. 4, both part and the plate carried thereby are brought to a vertical .position when the frame is swung inward, and theY plate held thereby in a proper way to be engaged by the forks.

To keep the delivering frame stationary when not in use, the U-shaped lock 30 is provided, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4; the arms of said U-lock being turned to include between them one of the side bars of the frame, and lso hold it immovable. l/Vhile the said frame can be swung inward by pushing it by hand, I prefer to use the lever 31 pivoted to the casing 32 of the conveyer at an intermediate point 33. By pulling upon its handle-end 34, its opposite end 35 presses the swinging frame inward to the exact point desired, and automatically retains it there until it is to be swung back empty.

To receive the plates from the upper' end of the conveyer, the same arrangement is used as for delivering thereto; for, the apron 10 and the conveyer chains or straps 4 being plate resting made to move in the same directions, though' at different speeds, the ascent of the conveyer section 42L means a motion of the upper sec tion of the apronlO from its pulleys 40-V to its pulleys 41. Consequently, as a plate is brought up and is carried along by its supporting forks on the section 4b (Fig. 2), the apron 10 moving in the same direction but twice as fast, comes along into frictional engagement with such plate, and quickly cai'- ries it away from its forks toward the gate 11. To keep said gate out of the way of the plates thus delivered to the left hand part of the apron, thel gate is given a lug 42 which is engaged by the latch 13 when the gate is lifted to a horizontal position, and the latter thereby retained in such position. The latch tail 15 Vbeing pivoted in a' manner to be turned up and over upon the latch, is thereby kept from interference with the cross bar 16 of the forks as the latter come up and over the pulleys 8.

From the left hand end of the apron, the plates are easily removed by hand and placed in the melting vat as fast as they come.

l prefer to apply the motive power to the shaft 43 (F ig. 6) upon which the pulleys are mounted, and to transmit double speed to the shaft 44 upon which the pulleys 41;@ are mounted, by means of the sprocket wheels and chain 45, 4:6 and 47; he idler lS being used for keeping said chain suitably taut.

To keep the. lower edge of each holderback 3 from interference with the latch-tail 15, said edge is given the notch 49, as shown in Fig. 5.

For the sake of simplicity in illustration, the conveyer-parts 4; are represented as belts, but of course any well-known type of conveyer-chain can be used, and is in fact what l actually do use in machines of the kind already constructed.

I find that when the plates are fed too rapidly to the delivery apron 10 there is danger of one such plate reaching another before the latter has cleared the gate 11, and traveling with it beneath the conveyer section 1lb. The result is that such second plate has no holding forks to receive it, and will be dumped from the end of said apron down the conveyer space. To prevent this, l provide the rocking lever intermediately pivoted at 51, and so arranged that the upward pressure given to one end thereof by a plate l held by the gate 11 will cause its opposite end to be depressed upon a following plate with suii'icient force as to keep the latter plate from movement until after the forward plate has been released by the gate and permitted to travel along upon the apron.

What l claim as my invention and for which l desire Letters Patent is as follows, to wit :d

l. The combination of an endless conveyer having a substantially horizontal section, holding members carried by said conveyer and each consisting of an arm or arms parallel with the conveyer and held at their front ends, and means for delivering objects to said arms at a speed exceeding that of the conveyer.

2. The combination with an endless conveyer having holding members, of a delivery means moving at a higher speedthan the conveyer; said holding members being adapted to receive objects carried by the delivery means when said conveyer and means are moving in one direction, and to deliver such objects from the holders to the delivery means when the direction of their movement is reversed.

3. rlhe combination of an endless conveyer having a substantially horizontal sect-ion, holding members carried thereby open rearwardly, means for delivering objects to said holding members at a speed exceeding that of the conveyer, and stops automatically released by said conveyer for holding such objects inactive until the proper moment to enable them to suitably engage said members.

4. The combination with an endless conveyer section of which is horizontal, of forks carried by said coni'icyer and open in the direction of the latter, a surface moving in the same direction as the under part of said horizontal section but more rapidly, a stop for holding stationary any object resting on said surface, a latch locking said stop, and means connected with said conveyer for disengaging said latch-from said stop and permitting such object to be carried into said forks.

5. The combination with an endless conveyer a section of which is horizontal, a series of forks carried thereby and cross bars on said forks, of an endless apron located beneath said horizontal section and moving in the same direction as the under part thereof but more rapidly, a swinging gate supported over said apron, a latch holding said gate against the pressure of an object resting on said surface, and a pivoted tail connected with said latch, said tail and cross bar being so located that said bars engage said tail and lift said latch when the conveyer is moving in one direction, but simply throws said tail out of the way when the conveyer is moving in the opposite direction.

6. rlhe combination with a conveyer, of a concave backing having a non-abrasive surface, the axis of such backings curvature being parallel with the conveyers direction of motion, and a pair of arms located at a suitable distance from the concave surface and parallel with its axis of curvature; each arm being rigid with the backing at one end.

7. The combination with a vertical endless conveyer having plate holders open in the direction of the conveyers length, of an inclined receiver located beneath the conveyer, a table at the lower end of said receiver, and rigidly held leaf springs at the juncture of said receiver and table.

8. rilhe combination with a vertical endless conveyer having plate holders open in the direction of the conveyers length, of an inclined receiver consisting of a plurality of anti-friction rolls, a table at the lower end of the receiver, and a yielding hard surface at the juncture of said table and receiver.

9. The combination with a vertical conveyer having forks carried thereby, of a swinging frame adapted to temporarily hold a semi-cylindrical stereotype plate and to be swung into the path of said forks, whereby the passage of the latter will remove such plate from said frame.

lO. rlhe combination with a vertical endless conveyer, and forks carried thereby, of a swinging frame having its side bars bent4 outward at their lower sections, inclined surfaces between said side bars for dovetailing with a curved eleetrotype plate, means supporting,l such plates in such position, and means for swinging the lower end of said frame inward into the path of such forks.

ll. The combination with a moving surface for Carrying` plates, and means for temporarily holding` such plates from being moved by said surface, of a fixed rocking lever adapted to have one end supported by a plate on said surface and to thereby interfere with the travel of a second plate following the lirst named one, until after the first i 80th day of January, 1908.

JOSIAH H. LONG. lVitnesses A. B. UPHAM, VARREN N. AKnRs. 

